Evolution of Spiritualism

Here are some more words of wisdom from Al Batten's presentation to the ISF Congress in July 2006.


Then he moves on to the essence of what the Soul is. Now this is pretty deep stuff and can be a little slow and tedious, so please bear with me for the next few minutes. Philosophy is interesting but sometimes you have to work your way through it.

He calls the Soul a prior organization (remember this because it opens up a whole new interesting area for discussion) that assumeJulys a material body, a coating if you will, when it presents itself to the material world. We talked about the fact of Matter and Motion being the essences of all life forms but he goes on to an ultimate conclusion by stating that the physical aspect of man is the perfection of all Matter and the spiritual aspect of man is the perfection of all Motion. He then he goes even further to explain that the Soul is comprised of three distinct parts; Love, Will, and Wisdom. Now we are getting into some pretty deep stuff here because it is pure philosophy; it’s abstract and it’s conceptual. Not objective, can’t see it, can’t touch nor feel it, and we can’t draw a picture of it, but it is a reality, so we need to switch to a different thought process, to that internal light and imagine the realm of the spiritual.

Love is the basic element of the human soul. He calls it that delicate and inexpressible element which is felt in the depths of every human spirit. It is the essence of the soul; the element that conceives all of the loveliness, all of the gentleness, all of sweetness, and all of the beauty in all things. It is the germ or the seed of the Soul.

Will, (we might call it will power) is a living force which connects Love and Wisdom. You might call it an independent element of the mind which is beyond the influence of external forces yet it can’t act on its own, it’s a slave to the influences of both Love and Wisdom. It’s the force that influences the body to move and it’s the means by which Love achieves its’ objectives. Love, in effect, prompts the Will to act. It has no independence of action and can’t initiate a movement; it only moves on the prompting of Love.

Wisdom is the third faculty of the soul; it is in fact the perfection of Love. It’s the highest and most perfect element of the Soul; the glue that binds it together. It flows from love, is directed by experience, modified by will, and rendered perfect by knowledge. He calls it the thinking principle, the faculty which investigates searches, calculates and analyses. It is, in fact, the faculty of the soul which gives order and form to all things in the outer world.

And the sum total of this Soul originated and can only exist through the Natural Law of Cause and Effect. The Divine Intelligence that Great Positive Mind is the Cause, the Universe is the Effect, and Spirit is the ultimate Design.

So now he has given us an idea of what constitutes the Soul or Spirit and we’ve made it to the Spirit World. What’s it like there? What is it and where is it? There are lots of opinions on this one but in the final analysis there is no consensus on its makeup. The concept of a spirit world, in fact Spiritualism itself, has been with us since the dawn of civilization; we see it early in history with the ancient tribes of Egypt, as the concept of the Elysian Fields in Greek mythology, in other words the concept of a heavenly Paradise. It was written about by Socrates who went to jail and died for his Spiritualism and by Plato, discussed in the Christian Bible; Joan of Arc was burned at the stake for refusing to denounce her spirit guides... and, in what you might call modern times, in the 18th it was first documented through the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg in his masterpiece 12 volume work titled “Arcana Coelestia”.

Davis expands on all the previous theories with a rationality that is very reverent but devoid of emotion, and leads us to “the grand design of the Divine Intelligence in which there are seven spheres of existence or development”. Even as Spiritualists we tend to think only of a “Spirit World” but it’s obviously much more complex.

The first sphere is the one with which we are most familiar, we exist in it, human life in the natural world where we each progress at our own speed to levels that are driven by our interests. It is important to recognize that in this sphere we are all on an individual journey, moving at different speeds and influenced by different conditions and circumstance. It’s not a race but we all end up at the same finish line. Once you recognize the significance of this, it makes life much easier.

The second sphere is spiritual life in the Spirit World in which he describes three societies. In the first are children who were taken before their time and, in a strange twist, there are also other undeveloped spirits who you might classify as undesirable and are in much lower stages of advancement. It’s sort of a triage unit where the children are placed with caring spirits who specialize in nurturing the young and then there are all those others who sort themselves out into groups with similar interests; like attracts like and you are what you want to be, even in the Spirit World. It’s all a matter of personal choice, as it is here in the natural world. Everyone however is mandated to a process of progression eventually recognizing their imperfections and all, without exception, are subject to the divine influence of love and all eventually learn to love, and it is love that facilitates the progression. In the second society we find spirits who are learning about the principles and truths of the Divine Mind and this is where Spirits with common interests are starting to help each other in their progression. It’s probably where most of us start our life in this new world. It is known as the Society of Causes where the occupants gain an understanding of the law of cause and effect but haven’t yet learned the potential uses for which the law was intended.

The third society is called the Plane of Effects where they’re getting into the heavy stuff, getting to know the uses of the laws of cause and effect, and are moving towards an understanding of the ultimate design and the universal relationship of things to each other and with this new knowledge are preparing to advance to the third world of existence.......

The third sphere is the Celestial World, one of celestial purity. And here again are three societies: the 1st contains the components of the soul; the forces of Love, Will, and Wisdom which correspond to the perfection of Love. And the 2nd is the perfect harmony of these three forces working together towards perfected Wisdom; and the 3rd is moving towards celestial purity. And this is where we find our guardian angels who minister to all those in the lower spheres and who have no other goal than to gratify their thirst for purity. It is also said that the knowledge of this sphere is entirely beyond the comprehension of human understanding.

We also gain an understanding that there is a physical dimension to these spheres. There are forests, plains, rivers and lakes with all the beautiful physical features we find on earth, except here they are more perfect in their nature and, since the senses are more refined in this world, the beauty takes on a spiritual connotation with is far more distinctive and is a direct reflection of the spiritual development of the individual mind. I call it a spiritually induced reality.

As to the question of where is it? .... Well that’s where the imagination starts to run wild. Strangely enough, in this book, Davis doesn’t shed any light on it except to explain that it comes from the earth and depends upon the earth for its existence and also that it exists within a system of suns and planets similar to the Milky Way system. In his later works he goes into much more detail and, in fact, gives a dimensional characteristic to the spheres, ie; they exist in specific distances from the surface of the earth. Others have supported this but there are so many different opinions that it gets confusing: ie: that the first sphere is at 50 miles with subsequent spheres at similar distance rising up to 300 miles, another says the first starts at 500 miles rising to 18,000, another states that it actually exists within the earths atmosphere and may in fact extend down into the earth.

There are obviously too many opinions to form any consensus. Swedenborg didn’t attempt to give his spirit world any definite location in space, claiming that, since it was spiritual, it was outside of the material order of things and, therefore, did not exist in time and space. Consequently his spirit world could have no spatial relationship to earth.

The great British Spiritualist, Arthur Findlay, theorized that it was all around us at different levels of vibration; an interesting theory also proposed by the American author, James Redfield in the Celestine Prophecy. Since we all exist in an atmosphere of etheric gasses, I personally think that it could exist as a combination of the vibration theory within an atmosphere of etheric densities that are sensitive to the vital principle of thought. However there is no consensus on it and there are obviously too many opinions to make any sense of it; but Davis was convinced that advances in technology would eventually lead to the scientific discovery of the Spirit World, wherever it is.

But regardless of the lack of consensus let’s return to those first three spheres. Davis classifies them as the doorway through which spirit enters into highest levels of development; the fourth to the seventh spheres. I won’t get into a description of each one because words really aren’t enough to give us an idea of the progression that takes place. It’s a spiritual unfoldment that’s totally beyond human comprehension. In his writings we find phrases like: “Every form and thing is constantly growing lovelier and lovelier, and every sphere is more beautiful and pure.” “Every mind is like an open flower”. “Here are the fields of Paradise; and on them is erected the house of many mansions” “Here are all the beauties of earth and heaven combined, developed and perfected”.